On the same day that Donald Trump, president of the United States, threatened to annihilate the civilization of Iran, Tame Impala deployed their music as if they were special waves against threats, one could almost say against differences. The sense of community and collective offered by Kevin Parker, absolute leader of this massive psychedelic project turned band, seemed to offer a welcoming and celebratory space on Tuesday night in Madrid. The world, that place full of arsonists, was burning again, but at the Movistar Arena Tame Impala gave a night of empathetic rock, full of lights and lightning, top-level pyrotechnics, which invited everyone to enjoy and reflect.
At 8:15 p.m., Parker and his team appeared punctually on the circular stage of the Movistar Arena and, without preambles or greetings, they launched into performing ‘Apocalypse Dreams’, a composition that invited us to think about the days we are living in. From there, thanks to a striking set design and songs like ‘The Moment’ or ‘Gossip’, the group executed an entire repertoire full of instrumental strength, in which each passage, each minute, encouraged people to forget everything, to leave behind the madding crowd and the catastrophists of the planet, those who seek to destroy others. While it is true that there was never a single political proclamation or a single message of solidarity, Tame Impala’s music, so effective and bombastic, gave moments full of associative life, like that wave of joy that calls others to join the party. A crucial moment in this sense was ‘Elephant’, a devastating song by Lonerism, album that in 2012 uncovered a band called to be capitalized.
The great, the epic, has always been in Tame Impala’s music, driven by the force of electronics. If man is an insignificant and erratic being who still aspires to have moments of greatness, one could almost say that of a mundane epic, in the songs of the Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, the total maker of everything, there are moments to which he can stick. When you listen to Tame Impala, the Moon stops being that asteroid to boast about and cover up the bravado of a Government like the United States and shows itself as a place to dream and aspire to. Every sensation and impulse is magnified in its psychedelic melodies. It is a conscientious search, exemplified in very good albums like Currents. In fact, it was a blast when ‘Let It Happen’ played, with a light projection that led to infinity and beyond. The same thing happened with ‘Eventually’ and the pavilion was filled with a heavenly blue tide of light.
Tame Impala’s live music is always more expansive than their albums. He even plays more with the listener, either when Parker takes off his sweatshirt, drinks from a glass offered to him by someone from the audience or goes to the sound table, in the center of the track, and sets up a kind of homemade living room with cushions and a sofa to lie down and sing as if he were listening to a midsummer night’s reel in a Richard Linklater film.
Last night, it was still spring and the world seemed to end again, but Tame Impala’s music did not allow it to be pessimistic, even less so when ‘The Less I Know the Better’ or ‘End of Summer’ came on. He also didn’t let himself be very euphoric. As has been known since jazz times, when a genre becomes mainstream, stop being subversive. In this way, his enormous psychedelia yesterday lost nuances, edges typical of a genre full of nooks and crannies. Because this style born from the counterculture and experimentation with drugs and experiences can be much more far-fetched and crazy, less predictable. We could refer to 13th Floor Elevators or Jimi Hendrix, but, to cite contemporaries, also King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Perhaps all this because it is a band enlightened by the fervor of big festivals.
However, as the world is, at least the community status of this music that seems to travel into space and invites us to believe in civilizations beyond annihilations is appreciated. Perhaps last night this music was also in Madrid a territory reserved for a certain posh listener, among them the upper-class tourist, capable of affording the exorbitant price of admission and being at all the social events of a city whose rulers always look for the Miami model, as they have recognized. But in times when almost no one looks for edges to events and only urgently participates in them, it is preferable to stay with the positive: Tame Impala was a band capable of creating a space to celebrate expansive, imaginative and seductive music in turbulent times.